Editorial.

In this evolving world, when information is piling up from different corners, scientific journal represents one of the most important avenues of transmission of knowledge from the sources to the users. In fact, the need of scientific journals in developing countries is enormous, but very few are coming out from there. This is more relevant in the field of gastroenterology and hepatology. In one hand, the numbers of patients with gastroenterological and hepatological problems are on rising trend in these parts of world. On the contrary, many of these patients are not able to follow the treatment guideline provided by advanced and developed countries. These facts indicate that there should be ongoing investigations about epidemiology, pathogenesis, prevention and therapy of different diseases within the disciplines of gastroenterology and hepatology to optimize with the need of these patients at developing countries. The retrieved information should reach the hands of physicians policy makers, and medical associates of these regions. To my understanding, the ‘Euroasian Journal of Hepato-Gastroenterology’, that is endorsed by liver organizations of more than 10 countries, deserves a specific place among the journals of these disciplines. In most cases, a journal of a discipline is endorsed by usually one organization. The Euroasian Journal of Hepato-Gastroenterology is going to complete its 4 years of regular publication, a significant event for any journal of this region. Also, conferences and seminars of this area are well represented in this journal. Standing at the footstep of 5th year of its publication, I extend my congratulation to the contributors, editors and publishers of the journal. I am sure that the journal would soon be reflected as a prominent journal of this region.

This edition of Innovations in Education and Teaching International has papers from around the world including one by Eva Katz and Marianne Coleman which discusses the process of ' academization ' within higher education colleges (in Israel). This is being achieved by requiring academic staff to demonstrate effective teaching practice and provide evidence of research activity as the basis for tenure and promotion. Naturally, changes in academic ethos have raised a number of issues relating to the extent of autonomy and professional accountability of teacher educator researchers. In this paper the authors describe the results of a study that they have made of teacher educator researchers' perceived attitudes to academic freedom and professional accountability . Although the study was conducted at a single college in Israel, the findings probably reflect the situation that exists in other colleges-both in Israel and elsewhere in the world.
Quite often within this journal we have discussed a variety of issues relating to the use of ' group projects ' as a teaching mechanism. As Mike Joy points out in his paper, the discipline of computing is an area where group projects are an imperative. However, in this context, their use is not unproblematic. Indeed, as this author describes, conflicts can arise as a result of differences of opinion relating to the relative merits and use of 'conventional' software engineering methodologies compared with some of the 'newly emerging' techniques such as ' agile programming '. Based on a controlled comparison of the two approaches, this paper reveals a number of pedagogic advantages associated with using new methods within group projects in computer science.
We are all familiar with the growing popularity of web-based courses. They can be used both for the delivery of distance learning and for the provision of flexible study modes in campusbased learning. The paper by Chih-Kai Chang discusses the importance of the need to understand learners' learning behaviour as a result of their interaction with a web-based course. He then describes the use of data-mining techniques as a means of analysing sequential concept patterns from web logs in order to throw light on how students study and learn through webbased delivery. A case-study approach is used to illustrate the basic techniques and the methodology that he has developed.
Web-based learning is also the underlying theme of the paper by Chen-Chung Liu and Chun-Ming Tsai. However, the particular interest of these authors falls within the area of web-based peer assessment (of learning portfolios) using knowledge acquisition techniques. They have devised an approach (referred to as ' triadic portfolio analysis ') that employs repertory grid methods to elicit the personal evaluation constructs of students. Cluster analysis and decisiontree analysis techniques are then applied to these constructs in order to derive personal conceptual frameworks and evaluation schemes. These can be used to stimulate reflective thinking and thereby improve students' learning experiences.
The paper by David Boud et al. focuses on confronting globalization-learning from intercontinental collaboration in which authors from Australia, Sweden, Canada and South Africa consider the experience of developing an online intercontinental master's degree in adult learning and global change. The paper exhibits the kind of writing collaborations which reflect some of the collaborative learning explored and evidenced in a number of papers in the journal. Several papers look at e-learning oriented issues and practices such as web-based learning, webbased knowledge acquisition and online discussion in a variety of contexts. Stephen Bostock and Wu Lizhi focus on issues and practices related to the effects of gender on online discussions between students during a course based at Keele University. The results of their study are interesting in terms of gender relations and communications since they identify the greater number of messages per student in all female groups. The encouragement of involvement among all students urged on by the kind and number of messages from the female students implies that the females were, to some extent, inhibited from contributing by the presence of males.
Most of the essays in this edition are focused on undergraduates but David Johnson's essay on supervision of work-based doctorates looks at the differences between a PhD and a workbased doctorate specifically in terms of the difficulties of assessing the professional practice elements of the student's work and suggesting agreed learning outcomes, supervisor training and the use of workplace-based supervisors as ways of overcoming these difficulties.
Participation in the classroom is the main topic for the essay by Kadire Gurgin and Dannelle Stevens who look at bridging in-class participation with innovative instruction in a university classroom in Turkey, encouraging discussions and building democratic skills whilst explicitly encouraging participation in a context which has not hitherto been known for it.

Philip Barker
The University of Teesside